The NBA draft lottery is an annual event held since 1985 by the National Basketball Association (NBA), in which the teams who had missed the playoffs (top 14 picks) in the previous season, or teams who hold the draft rights of another team that missed the playoffs in the previous season, participate in a lottery process to determine the draft order in the NBA draft. In the NBA draft, the teams obtain the rights to amateur U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. The lottery winner would get the first selection in the draft. The term "lottery pick" denotes a draft pick whose position is determined through the lottery, while the non-playoff teams involved in the process are often called "lottery teams".
Under the current rules, only the top three picks are decided by the lottery, and are chosen from the 14 teams that do not make the playoffs (with the number of lottery chances per each of the 14 teams being weighted according to record). The lottery is weighted so that the team with the worst record, or the team that holds the draft rights of the team with the worst record, has the best chance to obtain a higher draft pick. After the top three positions are selected (from the lottery slotting system), the remainder of the first-round draft order is in inverse order of the win-loss record for the remaining teams, or the teams who originally held the lottery rights if they were traded. The lottery does not determine the draft order in the subsequent rounds of the draft.